Hi i don't know if this is the right forum, my son rehomed a 2yr old male gsd a couple of weeks ago and he has a problem with the dog chaseing shadows it will also do this inside the house when the lights are switched on, even the reflection from a watch face, has anyone any answers for this.regards Tom

Hi Tom - Is this a new development or has it been an ongoing problem? Has this dog ever had a flashlight or laser light used as a toy for him to chase? What you describe sounds a lot like the obsessive behavior sometimes associated with the use of laser lights/flash light beams as toys/prey items.

This is an energy and stimulation issue, usually. What kind of exercise and mental stimulation does the dog get on a regular basis? What has been done, if anything, to stop or discourage the behavior up to now?

Hi Jen we have no idea how long it has been going on it was noticed a couple of days after he took the dog from the other owners who say they never seen the dog do it but they where at work most of the time, the dog is walked twice a day and played with by two teens with a ball or a tug and they try to distract him with toys Tom

This happens alot with dogs who have been given a laser pointer to chase around. My boy Cujo used to do it (lights, not shadows), and he will still stare at light reflections on the ceiling from time to time. I don't let him do it and he's improved alot since 2 or 3 years ago. Just gotta be persistent in telling em to knock it off. I believe its a form of OCD.

Yep. Only in my case my son thought it was great fun to have RJ chase a flashlight beam. When I saw him do it I was horrified. Not only did he get an ass chewing...every time the dog starts chasing shadows and reflections I make him go outside and run the dog. That'll learn 'im. My son found out that Some lessons are learned the hard way.

Howard

Same thing here and it saddens and horrifies me too, because it's obviously something that doesn't go away on it own. Anything can spark the behavior, like the reflection of the glass on a watch face on the ceiling of a car, or the reflection of Lear's stainless steel food bowl on the ceiling as the light from the kitchen window catches it while it's being washed. God forbid we ever have to use a flashlight in the middle of the night for anything.

Since Lear chases anything, a flashlight is no different and that's how it started. It only took a couple of times of going out in the backyard with the flashlight to check on something and that was that.

Two things I don't understand about this terrible behavior. Why does chasing a light cause it and why (it seems) it will last for the rest of the dog's life. What kind of thing is that???

Is it just the chase? It's got to be more than that. That look that Lear gets when he spots a light - nothing stands in his way, he hears nothing, his eyes get a completely different look and he pants. He's completely locked in. It's NOTHING like when he's chasing a prey item around or trying to get a tug or biting the bite suit.

I hate it. It's just awful to see my dog do that. I hate it for him. Like he's under some kind of horrible spell.

Edited to add: I'm looking forward to the day when not allowing him to do it and distracting him actually has some effect. But it's not working so far.

Cesar Milan had an episode where he worked with a beagle (I think) that was obsessed with lights and reflections, and while I know he is more entertainment than actual learning, it was a good episode.

You can go to his website and I think you can watch parts of the show (not sure about that, I have not cruised his site too much). http://www.cesarmillaninc.com
Click on season one and then find Harry and Brooks (I am pretty sure that is the episode)

He did stop the dog from doing it and it was about giving them lots of exercise and also stopping the dog from even staring at things that would get him going. Basically he would redirect the dog to do something else.

It never talked about how long it took him to correct this issue, which is something I wish he would say on his shows.
I have too many people come to me saying that his methods don't work on their dog because the show kind of depicts that he does it in a day......

I found reference to that episode here http://www.cesarmillaninc.com/dogwhisperer/seasonone.php but there was no video, nothing other than a very short write-up. I've watched lots of his shows but never caught that one.

Sandy, the problem with the relfections/shadows/lights is that they are prey items the dog can never catch. The dog is in constant building of frustration for this prey item that it can see, thinks it can catch, thinks it has caught (mouthing the light/pawing the light etc) but never goes away and there is no satisfaction for the dog of grabbing and shaking or chewing or holding or tugging that prey item. So where a tug unloads the dog, the light forever frustrates and always builds.

At a recent seminar Bernhard Flinks told a story of how they took a dog that loved to chase light (laser or flashlight) and used it to teach the dog to target different parts of the body on a decoy. They started out by teaching the dog to target a pacific ball in a row of balls laid out and transfered that to targeting different arms of a decoy. I am not saying people should do this but it was a good example of how Flinks can think out side the box and turn something negative into something usefull. The impression I got too was that it was kinda of an experiment of if they could do that with a dog that already had this fascination with light